Ralf Rangnick responds to rumours Manchester United players are unhappy with his training methods

Ralf Rangnick has defended his training methods after reports claiming that Manchester United players are unhappy with the ‘old fashioned’ nature of the sessions.

The German boss is in charge of the Red Devils on an interim basis until the end of the season, but results and performances have been mixed under the 63-year-old.

United head into their Premier League clash against Southampton on Saturday in sixth place in the table, one point behind fourth-placed West Ham with a game in hand.

The Premier League and Champions League are the club’s only priorities, having been knocked out of both domestic cup competitions this season.

Reports emerged on Friday morning suggesting United’s players are growing tired of Rangnick’s methods in training.

Several players are also said to have jokingly compared Rangnick’s assistant, Chris Armas, to TV character Ted Lasso – the hapless American coach on the Apple+ show.

When those claims were put to him on Friday, Rangnick said: ‘I haven’t read any newspapers and don’t know about those articles.

‘What I can assure you is the training is… I mean, the way that the team has developed in the last couple of weeks is obvious tactically. This is due to the work we have been doing in training.

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‘Both on the pitch, but also if we do the video analysis with them. The training that we are doing, including all of the important training games and the little games as well as the 11vs11 games.

‘We did a lot of rondos, a lot of those little games to increase